Hysteria In The Crucible
A group of people called the Puritans came to the United States and settled in Salem, Massachusetts. The Puritan people had escaped England because they were being persecuted for wanted to believe in their own religion; in other words, they came here for religious freedom. Salem, Massachusetts was a harbor town, near the ocean. This place was a theocracy; a system of government that is ruled by a priest in the name of God. The Puritans believed that their religion was the right one to follow and that everyone had to follow it. They did not believe in literature and would say that their religion forbade such enjoyment. The only time they would actually hang out and have a sort of reunion was when a new farmhouse was built. Other than this,
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they would always work, according to them, this was what kept the morals of the place from spoiling. Their day off would be on Sundays, they would go to church and pray all day. It was against the law not to attend church, whoever disobeyed would get punished. The punishment was a severe whip. The puritan people had a combination of beliefs, they believed in the existence of the devil and his influence through witchcraft. The Puritan people did and felt bad about doing bad things but had no way to relieve themselves because they had to repress their emotions and opinions. Instead of coming out and saying what they believed, they kept it all in and started what we know as the witch trials of 1692. The trials provided a place for people to openly confess their sins and not be accused, instead, they blamed it on the devil and witches. Witchcraft was one of the greatest crimes a person could commit, it was punished by death. Witchcraft is the act of sorcery or the belief in magic spells that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects in the world. Many people accused others of being witches even if the other individual did not do anything. The mere fact of dreaming that someone did something bad, that was enough for them to be considered a witch or be punished for that “crime”. What caused these accusations were greed, self-denial, and revenge. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, a group of girls go in a forest known as where the devil lives. They dance and have a ritual that involved black magic and witchery. Some of the girls start getting sick and become inert in bed, soon they start blaming others as witches.
The title of this play is a good choice because it has a double meaning. A crucible is a situation in which someone or something is severely tested. It also is a container used in the process of heating and melting metals to separate the valuable metals from the not so valuable. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail is most responsible for the chaotic witchcraft situation by the end of act 1 in Salem, Massachusetts.
In act 1 of Arthur Miller’s The crucible, Abigail is the most responsible for the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts. One of the reasons why Abigail is to blame for the hysteria is her personality; she is characterized as having “an endless capacity for dissembling.” On page 1093 of the play, Reverend Parris is confronting Abigail of what happened the night before where she and other girls, including Betty were seen by him. Parris claims he saw a dress and a naked girl, “ Parris: I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail, for my enemies will not blink it. I saw a dress lying on the grass. Abigail, innocently: A dress? Parris - it is very hard to say: Aye, a dress. And I thought I saw - someone naked running through the trees! Abigail, in terror: No one was naked! You mistake yourself uncle!” In
this conversation the reader knows Abigail is lying because Parris was there and saw it with his own eyes. She still lies to his face and pretends to be astonished with all of this. Lying was one of the worst sins a Puritan could commit. Anyone who lied was considered as siding with the devil. Abigail had a personality that disguises one’s real nature meaning that it would create hysteria for her and others that might be her victims or who ever she claims are involved in witchcraft. No one knows Abigail’s true self so because lies were forbidden no one would question Abigail’s accusations. As a second point, Abigail wants everything done her way or wants to have whatever she wants, no matter what it takes. On page 1097 Betty wakes up and starts telling bits of what actually happened. Abigail tells her not to say it again and soon proceeds to tell the others what to say of the events that happened. Betty goes to the window, “ Betty: you drank blood, Abby! You didn’t tell him that! Abigail: Betty, you never say that again! You will never- Betty: You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor! Abigail, smashes her across the face: Shut it! Now shut it!” Abigail starts saying, “ Abigail: Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breath a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will shudder you. And you know I can do it…” Abigail here shows her true self, the reader now knows that something more happened than what Abigail claims. She is willing to do anything to get what she wants, with this quote one can see that she even drank blood to cause someone’s death. She is evil, she doesn’t care who she has to harm as long as her name stays clean. She is hiding a lot and with all this she creates more lies. Abigail, is the one to blame for all the witch trials because she is the one that wanted to participate to kill someone, which of course it is something forbidden for the eyes of God and the Puritans. Abigail is blaming everything on the devil and sorcery which feeds the hysteria even more. As a third reason, Abigail starts yelling people’s names claiming they are are witches. Reverend Hale finally comes over to see Betty, he is an expert in witchery and how to defeat such sorceries. Hale starts confronting Tituba and Abigail, Abigail says she wants to open herself and be good in the eyes of God, she proceeds to say “ Abigail: I want to open myself! They turn to her, startled. She is enraptured, as though in a pearly light. I want the light of God. I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” Abigail is finally confessing what happened in the forest, but by saying that she saw all these women and blaming them of being witches without them being there that night cause more trouble and fear for others. The people there present when Abigail started yelling the names believe her but what if what she is saying isn’t true? She is known for getting her way no matter what and not showing her true nature. Abigail by doing this she is causing more chaos and adding people for the trials. Therefore she is the most responsible for the witchcraft hysteria because of her acts taking in act 1 of this play.
Tituba could also be considered to be the person most responsible for the chaotic witchcraft situation by the end of Act 1 in The Crucible. Tituba is Parris’ slave from a place named Barbados. On page 1093, Parris speaks to Abigail and tells her that he saw Tituba waving her hands above the fire and speaking gibberish. To this Abigail says that Tituba was only singing her barbados songs. Parris while pointing at Betty says, “ … I saw Tituba waving her arms over the fire when I heard a screeching and gibberish coming from her mouth. She were swaying like a dumb beast over that fire!” With this the reader knows that Tituba was the person that was conducting the conjuring of the evil spirits. She was the one saying all the chants and calling the Devil persay. She is the most responsible for the chaos because she is the one who called the Devil and if she hadn’t done this ritual none of the accusations would have happened and the girls wouldn’t of gotten sick. As a second reason, Tituba claims that Abigail begged her to do the conjure and therefore she did it. Abigail say to Hale, “ She comes to me every night to go and drink blood. Tituba: You beg me to conjure! She beg me make charm-” Tituba is saying that she did what she did because Abigail begged her to do it. This doesn’t mean she had to do it, it was her choice of whether she wanted to conducted and conjure evil. Not because someone begs the other individual means that person has to do it, it’s a choice. Tituba is responsible for this situation because instead of doing the right thing and not listen to Abigail, she still went with what Abigail wanted. As a final point, Tituba finally says what she saw that night and tells Reverend Hale that she saw a woman and four others. She also tells Reverend Parris that those spirits tell her to kill him. Hale asks, “ Hale, kindly: who came to you with the Devil? Two? Three? Four? How many? Tituba: There was four. There was four. Parris, pressing in on her: Who? Who? Their names, their names! Tituba, suddenly bursting out: Oh, how many times he bid me to kill you, Mr. Parris!” Tituba is confessing that these four people she saw have been telling her to kill Parris, she also claimed to see some witches from Salem that night. Tituba is responsible for all this because with what she says, shows that she already was practicing this. She clearly said that these four people or spirits were telling her to kill Parris meaning she had a encountering with them before. She is responsible for this hysteria because she was the one who started with the conjuring, she was one of the few people that knew how to do it. However, Abigail is more responsible than Tituba. Abigail begged Tituba to conjure the spirits and give her such blood to drink. Tituba for being a slave had no choice but to do as Abigail said. Abigail is the niece of the owner of Tituba which in this case is reverend Parris. Tituba couldn’t oppose on what Abigail said, well she is part of Parris’ family and lives in the house. Abigail did have the choice of not drinking the blood or participating in the ritual but of course she wanted this, she wants to kill the Proctor’s wife. Abigail has pretended to be something she is not all this time, she is good at it and at the end she starts saying a lot of names when Tituba already said there were only four. Abigail was definitely the one who caused the chaotic disruptions in Salem during Act 1 of The Crucible.
Abigail is most to blame for the hysteria of witchcraft by the termination of Act 1 of the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Abigail is a fraudulent person because she is dishonest and does everything for her benefit. She was the one who wanted all this to happen, maybe not the illness of Betty but she wanted the outcomes because she wants to make the proctor’s wife disappear. She tells the girls not to say the truth, this is a huge sin for the Puritans but the girls say nothing do to the threats she gives them. Abigail is capable of anything, if she truly wanted to be good in the eyes of God she would not have made Tituba and the others get involved in her twisted objectives. Also she blames more people of being witches without them being there that night even harm her. She blames them for the mere fact that she does not want to be pointed as the bad girl she is. For all these reasons there is no one else more to blame than her because of her selfishness all this was created. This is very important for the story as a whole because the reader can see how one person’s obsession toward someone or something can lead for others’ tragedy. Trying to show people that one is a holy person that does nothing wrong and is pure in the eyes of God when in fact that person is fake and has done so much damage is something not even God can forgive. The other girls in this act were just victims of a twisted mind.
they would always work, according to them, this was what kept the morals of the place from spoiling. Their day off would be on Sundays, they would go to church and pray all day. It was against the law not to attend church, whoever disobeyed would get punished. The punishment was a severe whip. The puritan people had a combination of beliefs, they believed in the existence of the devil and his influence through witchcraft. The Puritan people did and felt bad about doing bad things but had no way to relieve themselves because they had to repress their emotions and opinions. Instead of coming out and saying what they believed, they kept it all in and started what we know as the witch trials of 1692. The trials provided a place for people to openly confess their sins and not be accused, instead, they blamed it on the devil and witches. Witchcraft was one of the greatest crimes a person could commit, it was punished by death. Witchcraft is the act of sorcery or the belief in magic spells that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects in the world. Many people accused others of being witches even if the other individual did not do anything. The mere fact of dreaming that someone did something bad, that was enough for them to be considered a witch or be punished for that “crime”. What caused these accusations were greed, self-denial, and revenge. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, a group of girls go in a forest known as where the devil lives. They dance and have a ritual that involved black magic and witchery. Some of the girls start getting sick and become inert in bed, soon they start blaming others as witches.
The title of this play is a good choice because it has a double meaning. A crucible is a situation in which someone or something is severely tested. It also is a container used in the process of heating and melting metals to separate the valuable metals from the not so valuable. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail is most responsible for the chaotic witchcraft situation by the end of act 1 in Salem, Massachusetts.
In act 1 of Arthur Miller’s The crucible, Abigail is the most responsible for the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts. One of the reasons why Abigail is to blame for the hysteria is her personality; she is characterized as having “an endless capacity for dissembling.” On page 1093 of the play, Reverend Parris is confronting Abigail of what happened the night before where she and other girls, including Betty were seen by him. Parris claims he saw a dress and a naked girl, “ Parris: I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail, for my enemies will not blink it. I saw a dress lying on the grass. Abigail, innocently: A dress? Parris - it is very hard to say: Aye, a dress. And I thought I saw - someone naked running through the trees! Abigail, in terror: No one was naked! You mistake yourself uncle!” In
this conversation the reader knows Abigail is lying because Parris was there and saw it with his own eyes. She still lies to his face and pretends to be astonished with all of this. Lying was one of the worst sins a Puritan could commit. Anyone who lied was considered as siding with the devil. Abigail had a personality that disguises one’s real nature meaning that it would create hysteria for her and others that might be her victims or who ever she claims are involved in witchcraft. No one knows Abigail’s true self so because lies were forbidden no one would question Abigail’s accusations. As a second point, Abigail wants everything done her way or wants to have whatever she wants, no matter what it takes. On page 1097 Betty wakes up and starts telling bits of what actually happened. Abigail tells her not to say it again and soon proceeds to tell the others what to say of the events that happened. Betty goes to the window, “ Betty: you drank blood, Abby! You didn’t tell him that! Abigail: Betty, you never say that again! You will never- Betty: You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor! Abigail, smashes her across the face: Shut it! Now shut it!” Abigail starts saying, “ Abigail: Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breath a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will shudder you. And you know I can do it…” Abigail here shows her true self, the reader now knows that something more happened than what Abigail claims. She is willing to do anything to get what she wants, with this quote one can see that she even drank blood to cause someone’s death. She is evil, she doesn’t care who she has to harm as long as her name stays clean. She is hiding a lot and with all this she creates more lies. Abigail, is the one to blame for all the witch trials because she is the one that wanted to participate to kill someone, which of course it is something forbidden for the eyes of God and the Puritans. Abigail is blaming everything on the devil and sorcery which feeds the hysteria even more. As a third reason, Abigail starts yelling people’s names claiming they are are witches. Reverend Hale finally comes over to see Betty, he is an expert in witchery and how to defeat such sorceries. Hale starts confronting Tituba and Abigail, Abigail says she wants to open herself and be good in the eyes of God, she proceeds to say “ Abigail: I want to open myself! They turn to her, startled. She is enraptured, as though in a pearly light. I want the light of God. I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” Abigail is finally confessing what happened in the forest, but by saying that she saw all these women and blaming them of being witches without them being there that night cause more trouble and fear for others. The people there present when Abigail started yelling the names believe her but what if what she is saying isn’t true? She is known for getting her way no matter what and not showing her true nature. Abigail by doing this she is causing more chaos and adding people for the trials. Therefore she is the most responsible for the witchcraft hysteria because of her acts taking in act 1 of this play.
Tituba could also be considered to be the person most responsible for the chaotic witchcraft situation by the end of Act 1 in The Crucible. Tituba is Parris’ slave from a place named Barbados. On page 1093, Parris speaks to Abigail and tells her that he saw Tituba waving her hands above the fire and speaking gibberish. To this Abigail says that Tituba was only singing her barbados songs. Parris while pointing at Betty says, “ … I saw Tituba waving her arms over the fire when I heard a screeching and gibberish coming from her mouth. She were swaying like a dumb beast over that fire!” With this the reader knows that Tituba was the person that was conducting the conjuring of the evil spirits. She was the one saying all the chants and calling the Devil persay. She is the most responsible for the chaos because she is the one who called the Devil and if she hadn’t done this ritual none of the accusations would have happened and the girls wouldn’t of gotten sick. As a second reason, Tituba claims that Abigail begged her to do the conjure and therefore she did it. Abigail say to Hale, “ She comes to me every night to go and drink blood. Tituba: You beg me to conjure! She beg me make charm-” Tituba is saying that she did what she did because Abigail begged her to do it. This doesn’t mean she had to do it, it was her choice of whether she wanted to conducted and conjure evil. Not because someone begs the other individual means that person has to do it, it’s a choice. Tituba is responsible for this situation because instead of doing the right thing and not listen to Abigail, she still went with what Abigail wanted. As a final point, Tituba finally says what she saw that night and tells Reverend Hale that she saw a woman and four others. She also tells Reverend Parris that those spirits tell her to kill him. Hale asks, “ Hale, kindly: who came to you with the Devil? Two? Three? Four? How many? Tituba: There was four. There was four. Parris, pressing in on her: Who? Who? Their names, their names! Tituba, suddenly bursting out: Oh, how many times he bid me to kill you, Mr. Parris!” Tituba is confessing that these four people she saw have been telling her to kill Parris, she also claimed to see some witches from Salem that night. Tituba is responsible for all this because with what she says, shows that she already was practicing this. She clearly said that these four people or spirits were telling her to kill Parris meaning she had a encountering with them before. She is responsible for this hysteria because she was the one who started with the conjuring, she was one of the few people that knew how to do it. However, Abigail is more responsible than Tituba. Abigail begged Tituba to conjure the spirits and give her such blood to drink. Tituba for being a slave had no choice but to do as Abigail said. Abigail is the niece of the owner of Tituba which in this case is reverend Parris. Tituba couldn’t oppose on what Abigail said, well she is part of Parris’ family and lives in the house. Abigail did have the choice of not drinking the blood or participating in the ritual but of course she wanted this, she wants to kill the Proctor’s wife. Abigail has pretended to be something she is not all this time, she is good at it and at the end she starts saying a lot of names when Tituba already said there were only four. Abigail was definitely the one who caused the chaotic disruptions in Salem during Act 1 of The Crucible.
Abigail is most to blame for the hysteria of witchcraft by the termination of Act 1 of the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Abigail is a fraudulent person because she is dishonest and does everything for her benefit. She was the one who wanted all this to happen, maybe not the illness of Betty but she wanted the outcomes because she wants to make the proctor’s wife disappear. She tells the girls not to say the truth, this is a huge sin for the Puritans but the girls say nothing do to the threats she gives them. Abigail is capable of anything, if she truly wanted to be good in the eyes of God she would not have made Tituba and the others get involved in her twisted objectives. Also she blames more people of being witches without them being there that night even harm her. She blames them for the mere fact that she does not want to be pointed as the bad girl she is. For all these reasons there is no one else more to blame than her because of her selfishness all this was created. This is very important for the story as a whole because the reader can see how one person’s obsession toward someone or something can lead for others’ tragedy. Trying to show people that one is a holy person that does nothing wrong and is pure in the eyes of God when in fact that person is fake and has done so much damage is something not even God can forgive. The other girls in this act were just victims of a twisted mind.